The Advantage of the Spirit

He ascended to leave his Spirit, that he might send the Comforter. He went away himself, who was the great Comforter while he was below. But Christ ascended to heaven that they might have comfort through the God of comfort, the Spirit of comfort, the Holy Spirit: ‘I will send the Comforter’( John 14:16).
And though there was no loss by the ascension of Christ, they might fear by losing Christ that all their comfort was gone. But Christ tells them, 'I go to prepare a place for you.' He goes to take up heaven for his church, and then to send his Spirit. What a blessed intercourse is there now between heaven and earth! Our body is in heaven, and the Spirit of God is here on earth. The flesh that he has taken into heaven is a pledge that all our flesh and bodies will be where he is before long. In the meantime, we have the Spirit to comfort us, and never to leave us until we are brought to the place where Christ is. This is great comfort and might well come now in more abundance than before, because by the death of Christ all enemies are conquered, and by the resurrection of Christ it was revealed that God was appeased. The resurrection of Christ manifested to the world what was done by death; and now, all enemies being conquered, and God being appeased, what remains but the sweetest gift next to Christ, the Holy Spirit? And that is the reason why the Holy Spirit was more abundant after Christ's resurrection, because God was fully satisfied, and declared by the rising of Christ to be fully satisfied, and all enemies to be conquered.

Devotional Readings taken from Puritan Richard Sibbes 'Refreshment for the Soul.'
A Heavenly Conference, pp. 68-69
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